As a child, I was a fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder (author and heroine of the Little House on the Prairie series). I read all of her books, biographies about her, the books about her daughter, and as they began to be released the books about her mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. I also researched her family tree and found her ancestors back to the time of Henry VIII.
I no longer remember the exact order of events. When I was 12 (almost on my birthday), we moved to California. Either before or after that event, I read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s book West from Home, which are letters to her husband written on a visit to her daughter, a reporter in San Francisco, in 1915. Because Laura had visited the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition (World’s Fair) in San Francisco, I wanted to go visit what was left of it. I never got the chance while I lived in California. Years later, I finally got there.
Sitting by the lagoon of the Palace of Fine Arts was very peaceful, with the small fountain splashing and birds chirping and cawing. As I sat there enjoying the scene, there was a moment when I could almost picture Laura Ingalls Wilder and other women of the 1910s in their multi-layer dresses, hats or bonnets, and gloves strolling past in a promenade and gazing with wonder at the sights around them.
The Palace of Fine Arts was of a scale to inspire awe and intimidation. It was far more massive and taller than I had imagined. Walking underneath the rotunda, I felt insignificant. Are such large structures built to show us the insignificance of humanity? And yet, they are designed and constructed by humans, which means we create what makes us feel our own insignificance.
On April 15, 2019, the roof of Notre Dame caught fire and collapsed. The cathedral has been closed ever since. Almost immediately came promises to rebuild exactly as it was and reopen within 5 years. These promises are almost fulfilled. The new spire was recently uncovered and looks much like the one in my photo from 2005. The cathedral is scheduled to reopen in December 2024, five years and eight months after the fire. (Paris Je T’aime, Friends of Notre Dame; Mad White; World, April 4, 2024)
I was fascinated by the fire and commemorated it in 2019 with one of my architectural dessert masterpieces. 1 As I mentioned in that post, I visited Paris in 2005 and was fortunate to have a connection to a guest organist. We were invited to experience the cathedral from the organ loft. A unique experience that I was distracted from enjoying fully for a number of reasons.
This trip was before I officially began urbantraipsing, but was one of the first places I unknowingly tested out the habit. It was also the first time I liked a city, a foundational necessity for urbantraipsing which paved the way for my return trip to London in 2012 where I explored adaptively reused churches and bridges.
I enjoyed the Paris trip immensely and before we left was looking forward to returning. There was much I didn’t get to see on that trip and bridges that I didn’t know I would need to document walking. One day, I will return with a more advanced camera and improved photography skills.
Notre Dame organ pipes 2005Notre Dame woodwork from the organ loft 2005
Unfortunately, personal encounters with COVID have disrupted my intention to have an annual architectural dessert masterpiece over the last few years. I look forward to resuming the tradition one day. ↩︎
LeapFrog! was a fundraiser in Erie, PA, in 2004. “Experience America” by Cathedral Center Class of 2006 was one of the frogs I found in 2012. I think I found this one in the yard of what is now the Mother Teresa Academy near the corner of Sassafras and W 11th Street. According to Ami H.’s map, this frog moved to Splash Lagoon.
LeapFrog! was a fundraiser in Erie, PA, in 2004. I missed my turn on my way home from Presque Isle in 2022 and stumbled upon “On Golden Pond” by Chuck Benson and Bill Lechner. A few months later, I found Ami H.’s map and list of the frogs, which enabled me to intentionally find frogs on future trips to Erie.
LeapFrog! was a fundraiser in Erie, PA, in 2004. I found the frog above on a trip to Erie in 2012. Like some of Pittsburgh’s dinosaurs, I cannot match it to one of the original frogs in the official book.
In 2012, I experienced a narrow band of Erie along State Street from downtown to the waterfront. While walking around in this area looking for churches, I found some frogs. At the time, I did not make a note of the locations where I found them.
In 2023, I found that Ami H. maintains a list and map of the locations of the LeapFrog! frogs. I believe the frog that I found in 2012 is the one tagged on Ami’s map at the Children’s Museum. It has been repainted and become “Experience Frog.” (I still can’t find a match for it in the official LeapFrog! book.)
Thirteen months ago, Pittsburgh’s Fern Hollow Bridge reconstruction was declared finished eleven months after the previous bridge had collapsed. I scoffed at this announcement at the time as the side walk wasn’t yet open and the new bridge was closed again for a month during the summer to “complete all remaining bridge work.” (Mayor’s Press Release, June 8, 2023). However, David McCullough in The Great Bridge points out that there is never a clear completion date for a new bridge. He notes that when the Brooklyn Bridge was “finished:”
There was no one moment, no particular day, when he [Washington Roebling] could have said as much, nor would there be. Bridges did not end that way. There was always something more to finish up, some last detail to attend to. The final touches at Cincinnati, for example, had dragged on for nearly six months after the opening ceremonies and it looked as though the same might happen here. (505)
David McCullough, “The Great Bridge”
The Fern Hollow Bridge, therefore, was simply following the pattern established by other greater bridges. The bridge itself now seems to be fully complete and operational: all the multi-modal options to cross are open, the trail underneath is also open, and people crossing over or passing under can experience the public art installations. However, while the physical infrastructure has been repaired, the human physical and emotional fallout from the collapse continues.
Some of the people injured in the collapse are working with attorneys to seek transparency and a way to move forward following their experience. This fall, a judge ordered the release of documents relating to the bridge and its collapse (TribLive, November 16, 2023; TribLive, November 28, 2023; WPXI, November 28, 2023; WTAE, November 28, 2023; CBS News, November 29, 2023). In December, PennDOT released hundreds of pages of documents related to the collapse (CBS News, December 23, 2023).
News
Below are the news updates on the Fern Hollow Bridge and other bridge maintenance and replacement efforts in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County.
A year and a half after the City created a Commission on Infrastructure Asset Reporting and Investment, Mayor Gainey finally submitted nominations for the board seats to City Council (WESA, July 18, 2023). Council approved 12 commissioners on July 25, 2023, one commissioner on September 19, 2023, and one commissioner on December 18, 2023. The commission had its first meeting on December 5, 2023, (City of Pittsburgh Tweet, November 28, 2023; WPXI, December 5, 2023) but it hasn’t been added yet to the city’s website listing all Boards and Commissions. Presumably it will be added soon so that the agenda and minutes of the commission will be publicly available the same as all other city commissions. There have been no press leases regarding the long-overdue formation of this commission. I’ve only found the commissioners names by searching the City’s Legislative Center for “Appointment-Requiring Vote.” The approved commissioners are:
Lisa Frank
Zachary Workman
Tyler Watts
Tom Melisko
Patrick Cornell
Greg Bernarding
Eric Setzler
Doris Carson Williams
Darrin Kelley
Councilwoman Erika Strassburger
Chief Darryl Jones
Andy Waple
Samuel Miclot
Michele Miller Beener
The final designs for the rehabilitation of the Charles Anderson Bridge and the Panther Hollow Overpass are nearing completion and bids are expected to be released this month. (Pittsburgh Engage project page)
Pittsburgh’s Swindell Bridge, which closed initially from July to September 2022 due to falling debris, continues to have problems and the city is providing little to no information at this time. The expectation was that repairs over the summer would enable the bridge to fully reopen to traffic. Instead the latest repairs seem to have uncovered more issues. There is no evidence of a plan yet for addressing the situation. (TribLive, July 7, 2023; WPXI, August 7, 2023; Pittsburgh Engage page)
The “complete overhaul” of the South Negley Avenue Bridge announced in 2022 (CBS, February 25, 2022) has not been mentioned since and there is no project page for it to indicate that plans are in the works for it. The obvious deterioration on this bridge and lack of movement on repairs leaves the way open for speculation on whether we will have another bridge disaster in our city sooner rather than later.
Construction began on the 30th Street Bridge rehabilitation in April 2023 and finished in August. (WPXI, August 21, 2023; Pittsburgh Engage page)
Rehabilitation on the Swinburne Bridge remains on pause until after the Charles Anderson Bridge is reopened as the Swinburne Bridge is part of the detour route. (Pittsburgh Engage page)
Preliminary engineering is ongoing for the rehabilitation of the 28th Street Bridge. (Pittsburgh Engage page)
Temporary repairs, including protection from falling debris, were done on the California Avenue Bridge. Preliminary engineering is scheduled to start this year. Residents remain concerned about the falling debris and the condition of the bridge. This bridge is another possible candidate for the next bridge disaster in the city. (CBS, January 2, 2023; WPXI, June 29, 2023; WPXI, December 5, 2023; TribLive, September 8, 2023; Pittsburgh Engage page)
Photos: Other Bridges
Historic Pittsburgh Bridge Disasters
According to Bob Regan’s 2006 book “The Bridges of Pittsburgh,” Pittsburgh is no stranger to bridge disasters:
1845 – The original Smithfield Street Bridge burned down
1851 – The 16th Street Bridge burned down
1865 – Two spans of the 16th Street Bridge was washed away in a flood
late 1880s – The 6th Street/St. Clair Street Bridge burned down
1903 – The Wabash Bridge collapsed during construction
1918 – The 16th Street Bridge burned down (again)
1921 – The 30th Street Bridge burned down
1927 – The Mount Washington Roadway Bridge collapsed during construction
Map of bridges discussed in the Bridge Collapse series:
Uptown is one of the many neighborhoods in Pittsburgh that experienced decades of neglect. For this neighborhood, the neglect was despite Uptown being sandwiched between Oakland and downtown, two places among the state’s strongest economic regions. Zipping through Uptown from Oakland to downtown on Fifth Avenue or from downtown to Oakland on Forbes Avenue, it is easy to overlook or dismiss the hodgepodge of ruined home foundations turning back to forest; scattered vacant lots, parking lots, and industrial uses; and the intricate architectural details on abandoned and renovated townhomes.
In recent years, new buildings started springing up here and there. Some of these new projects are the work of the two institutions in the neighborhood: UPMC Mercy Hospital and Duquesne University. Others are the work of a variety of commercial and residential developers. Two reasons for this recent investment are the proposed Bus Rapid Transit system, which will eventually run through the neighborhood, and the in-progress redevelopment of the Lower Hill, an adjacent neighborhood.
The Uptown community saw these changes coming and prepared. Between 2015 and 2017, the community organization Uptown Partners collaborated UPMC Mercy, Duquesne University, the City of Pittsburgh, and others to create the EcoInnovation District Plan and the Uptown Public Realm zoning district. The plan and new zoning district are intended to guide future development and leverage their economic investment for the greater good of the neighborhood. Ideally, this will reduce the number of those who will be left behind.
This blog post is part of an on-going series watching the changes in Uptown. Periodically, approximately once a year, I return to the neighborhood to take new photographs of the same areas. In addition, I include links to articles about the project that I’ve encountered since the previous post in the series. At the end of the post, there is a map showing the location of the neighborhood and links to the previous posts in the series.
What’s new
There’s been a lot of development in Uptown since the last on-the-ground photographs from December 2021. Several projects that were in progress at that time have since been completed (or at least appear completed) including the UPMC Mercy Pavilion for the new vision rehabilitation center. Many more projects have broken ground, including one near the Birmingham Bridge on a vacant lot that has an extreme grade change. The near cliff that ran through the middle of this site made me guess that it would take longer to develop that property than the vacant building across the street with the Burrell sign painted on the side. This suggests that it may be easier to develop a environmentally challenged site than to reuse an existing building – which is a disturbing thought.
In addition to the projects we can see developing in the photo series, several more have been announced for the neighborhood, which can be seen in the news section.
A small aside, as a picture tells a 1,000 words, the photo this year of the Shephard’s Heart Fellowship suggests an unfortunate story (slightly embellished from having ridden the bus past the building over the course of several months). While there is no good time to have a fire, it appears that Shephard’s Heart had a fire shortly after they finished putting a fresh coat of paint on their building. As it’s been at least four months since I first notice the damage and no exterior repairs are apparent, it seems they might be having difficulty in resolving the after affects.
The Photos
Uptown in the News & on the Web
Two projects in Uptown are listed in Next Pittsburgh‘s list of 8 major development projects to watch in 2023: UPMC Mercy’s Vision Rehabilitation Center and Duquesne University’s new 12-story student housing (January 11, 2023). The Pittsburgh Business Times got a first look at the new UPMC Mercy Pavilion – the home of the vision rehabilitation center – prior to its May 1 opening (April 19, 2023) and the University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences provided an description of the services that will be provided (May 10, 2023).
The Tito-Mecca-Zazza House continued to make the news. The developer and Uptown Partners reached an agreement that would donate the house to the nonprofit for restoration while the new construction multi-unit building would be built on the remaining parcels, including the one with the garage that is part of Rolling Rock’s origin story (Pittsburgh Business Times, July 21, 2023). A descendant of the Tito family has filed a lawsuit protesting the proposed demolition of the garage (Pittsburgh Business Times, August 28, 2023).
The Bethlehem Haven women’s shelter in Uptown sought and received approval from Planning Commission on its plans to renovate and expand (Public Source, April 4, 2023; TribLIVE, April 4, 2023; TribLIVE, April 19, 2023).
Several other housing projects received approvals or are moving forward in the neighborhood including:
a formerly stalled 110-unit mixed-use apartment building got an infusion of new funds from the URA (Pittsburgh Business Times, January 19, 2023)
a 240-unit apartment building proposed for a block that is primarily a parking lot today (Pittsburgh Business Times, February 21, 2023)
an affordable/workforce housing development that received approval from Planning Commission (Public Source, July 25, 2023)
Panelists were interviewed by the Pittsburgh Business Times prior to their talk about the projects and opportunities coming to Uptown and the Lower Hill and another Pittsburgh Business Times article focused on the prominent role of Black developers in these projects (both articles: June 8, 2023). Another article discusses the panel (Pittsburgh Business Times, June 13, 2023).
Tech companies are also interested in Uptown with a tech venture studio taking over part of the former Paramount Building in Uptown (Pittsburgh Business Times, March 31, 2023).
urbantraipsing 